Two months ago I wrote in this column about an unusual
three-part anime titled: 5 centimeters per second. The
Japanese-sourced Blu-ray, alas, had no English
subtitles, but the three episodes were brief enough that
I felt one could watch an American or UK edition with
subtitles followed by the Japanese movie with complete
understanding of what was going on. The Place
Promised in Our Early Days a year earlier and was
Shinkai's first feature length anime. At just over 90
minutes without subtitles, this blu-ray makes the
transition between English and Japanese videos a little
more problematic – but not utterly impractical. The
question is whether the film is worth it, to say nothing
of the retail cost, which is double that of the typical
blu-ray. My comparisons were with both the U.S. and the
U.K. 480i editions. (At just this moment the UK there is
an inexpensive, readily available 2-disc set that also
includes Shinkai's first foray into the art, Voices of a
Distant Star.}

The Movie : 9>8
The setting for The Place Promised in Our Early Days
is an alternate timeline subsequent to the end WWII in
which, as far as Japan was concerned, the northern
island of Hokkaido was broken off from a Japan/U.S.
Alliance into a political entity known only as the
"Union" – a curious name, considering that the southern
communities would have preferred no separation at all
and, in fact, rebellious factions arise that would seek
to achieve just that, by violent means if necessary.

The center of the mysterious goings on in the north, now
called Ezo, is a Tower that looms into the stratosphere.
The Tower is nothing, if not mindbending in its beauty,
simplicity and purpose, which, we learn later, appears
to have something to do with the creation of a parallel
universe that could conceivably replace the one that we
know. Two extremely bright and resourceful high school
students, Takuya and Hiroki, had been working secretly
for the past few years to build an airplane that would
fly to the north and discover whatever they can learn
about the Tower.

Their classmate, Sayuri, is also fascinated with the
Tower, as the boys are with her. The boys make a promise
to fly to the Tower, once the "Bella Ciela" is
completed, and take Sayuri with them. But time
intervenes, and each goes their separate ways for next
three years: Takuya lands a high tech job working for
the government doing experimental research into parallel
universes, which both the tower and Sayuri, who has
fallen into a curious sleep for all this time, seem
inextricably linked. Hiroki, for his part, becomes
disillusioned and lonely, unable to come to terms with
his promise unfulfilled and his own dream life, in which
Sayuri figures prominently.

Image:
10/10
The first number indicates a relative level of
excellence compared to other Blu-ray DVDs on a ten-point
scale. The second number places this image along the
full range of DVDs, including SD 480i.

Like
5 centimeters
, the image quality for this Blu-ray is jaw-droppingly
gorgeous. What I wrote about
5 centimeters
applies here as well: Shinkai Mikoto's watercolor
palette positively glows with life. The color is dense
and translucent by turns, brilliant and quiet,
realistic, fanciful and lyrical. I think the effect is
more transcendent on 5 centimeters because the narrative
is so compressed and relatively wordless, thus depending
on imagery to make the emotional connection. But if you
like the one, you will certainly appreciate the other,
since the artwork is similar – though character design
is a little more advanced in 5 centimeters.

The Chinese AVP SD-DVD edition of 5 centimeters was
marred by edge-enhancement, the Region 2/UK edition of
Place Promised shows some EE, but it is not nearly as
evident as the AVP. The Region 1/US edition, which is
more properly color saturated compared to the UK (though
not nearly to the extent of the Blu-ray) is roughly the
same. As expected, the UK edition is a little sharper,
but is curiously noisier. I have included comparative
crops of full resolution captures of the same frame from
the blu-ray and both the U.S. and U.K. 480i editions
that reveal, even for a relatively narrow grayscale, the
extent to which greater resolution and an absence of
artifacts allows us to feel its own unique reality.

Zoomed-in

Blu-ray TOP, UK SD MIDDLE, US SD BOTTOM

(CLICK
TO ENLARGE)

Audio & Music:
8/7
This is almost as stunning an audio track as
5 centimeters: subtle and atmospheric, with
realistic train and air travel noises, cityscape and
office and computer room sounds. The earlier movie is
more ambitious than
5 centimeters
in that there are also various sounds of battle: machine
gun fire and explosions and the like. These don't come
off with nearly the force of feature film audio tracks
but, considering the overall dreamlike quality of the
canvas, I doubt that they're meant to. Again, compared
to
5 centimeters,
I found the music a little less inspired, though often
quite lovely, even hypnotic.

One further note that might be of interest: the feature
film duration on all three editions are within a few
seconds of one another, meaning that the UK/PAL DVD does
not suffer from speed-up. I confirmed this by ear and by
running the PAL and the Blu-ray simultaneously.
Refreshing to see an uncompressed audio track (the 2.0
option) without the, often artificiality of, surround.

Operations:
7
As with other Japanese language DVDs I found these menus
easy enough to sort out. Since we're used to standard
layouts, and this one is not unusual. Furthermore, the
graphics and the occasional Arabic numeral and English
word tell the story.

Extras:
1
The Bonus Features amount to a trailer in HD. It's
pretty, though.

Bottom line:
8
As noted for the Japanese blu-ray of 5 centimeters per
second, despite its high ratings for image, you should
not leap on this BRD any too quickly. Remember it has no
subtitles, nor any extra features to speak of in any
language; and there's a good deal of sci-
fi-babble in the second half of the film. True, I found
the motivation of the two boys leading up to the finale
a little arbitrary, and the finale itself, unexpectedly
anticlimactic. And the Blu-ray is expensive – nearly
U.S.$60 at current prices. On the other hand, after
watching one of the subtitled versions, you should be
able to immerse yourself into its dreamlike scenario and
a breathtaking image. Mesmerizing.